The present invention relates to a method for the consistent and rapid reproduction of a painted design bordered with cording on a quilt.
Conventionally, the manufacture of quilts and comforters involves the assembly of a facing sheet and a backing sheet of material sewn together along their perimeters to form a bag. The bag is stuffed with batting and placed on a quilting machine or similar bulk sewing apparatus for the final sewing operation, where it is stitched once through all the layers in a predetermined pattern. Today, much of the quilt manufacturing process has been automated, for example, quilting machines can be directed by computer to perform stitch patterning and control.
However, automated methods of production have not been applied to the production of quilts and comforters that are hand painted.
Hand painted comforters and quilts have a decorative pattern which has been designed and painted by an artist on a facing sheet. Subsequently, the facing sheet is sewn to a backing sheet to form the bag, which is then stuffed with batting and sewn together such that the thread follows the outline of the painted design. The sewing operation must be manually performed with a human operator following the perimeter of the design with a stitching machine, thereby accentuating the design.
Naturally, the manual operation required by the above stitching process substantially increases the time and cost of production above that of a conventional, non-painted quilt or comforter. For example, production time can range from three-quarters of an hour to several hours depending upon the complexity of the design. Furthermore, the high costs associated with individually designed, hand painted quilts has made the mass-marketing of these decorative products difficult. The cost to the consumer of a quilt made according to prior art processes can range from about $150.00 to about $900.00, again depending on the complexity of the design.
An additional disadvantage to the known process is the relatively low level of consistency and uniformity between work pieces. This is largely attributable to the low reproducibility of handiwork. The inevitable variations and inconsistency of design and quality of the quilts are subject to the consistency of the artist and the outline quilter. This lack of consistency has also contributed to making the products difficult to sell through catalog houses or other mass merchandising techniques. Specifically, the manufacturing differences and inconsistencies make it difficult for a catalog house to deliver products to its customers which are consistent with the photographs in their catalogs.
Related to the latter disadvantage, there is also a further disadvantage in guiding the border stitching by hand because there may be gaps of unpainted surface between the stitching and the edge of the design. These gaps can negatively affect the accentuation of the design.
Reversing the order of steps in the conventional painted quilt process described above would result in other disadvantages. For example, if a quilt is first stitched according to the desired pattern and the paint is subsequently applied, the paint applicator would necessarily have to be very slow and cautious. Even with an excess of caution, the paint would migrate out of the intended areas. As further examples, the applicator's brush may slip, excess paint may be applied, or areas near the stitching which should be painted may be missed.
In this regard, Applicant has become aware of various prior art references which fall essentially into four categories.
The first category relates to machines and methods for stitching predetermined patterns, as disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 4,497,269 to Schneider et al. This patent discloses quilt embroidering equipment where the sewing head remains fixed and the remainder of the apparatus shifts the work piece past the sewing head in the predetermined embroidery pattern.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,526,116 to Mannel discloses an embroidery machine which utilizes recordation of the desired embroidery pattern as a program on a storage element wherein the specific motif has been converted to half tones which are accurately reproducible by computer generation.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,748,920 to Stutznacker relates to a sewing device having a fixed head which likewise utilizes computer storage and control to confirm and standardize the dimensional data in a contour-stitching operation. However, with the above patents, there is no painting of the fabric.
The second group of patents relates to various cording and/or quilting machines. Thus, U.S. Pat. No. Re. 24,305 and U.S. Pat. No. 2,813,501, both to Shotsky, are reflective of very early generation quilting machines. See also U.S. Pat. No. 3,695,196 to Codos.
Processes for coloring embroidered designs, which are in the third category, are disclosed in U.S. Pat. Nos. 1,563,185, to Gouled and 4,654,044 to Gilardone, Jr. Of these, the latter is of marginal interest, as it relates to the sequence of identifying a pattern by the disposition of an embroidery thread, followed by the application of a colored pattern, in this instance, by the sublimation of a dye from a transfer printing element. However, the thin threads will not prevent migration or the like of paint in a coloring operation.
The last category contains U.S. Pat. Nos. 2,371,153 to Connelly and 2,450,127 to Gardener et al. which disclose conventional artistic assemblies. In the instance of Connelly, the invention relates to the use of raised lines to define the figures or objects to be painted, for the purpose of providing a barrier for overspill of a child's watercolor paints. Gardener et al. defines a kit with a base having a series of different patterns disposed thereon and identified by various lines and numbers. Depending upon the specific pattern that is to be followed and the number and color to be utilized, the player will select certain colored segments or pieces for disposition over the pattern. When fully assembled within the frame, the picture may differ depending upon the initial color and pattern choices made.